In theory, two opposing theses thus exist of the nature of art or of aesthetic experience, respectively. The philosophical standpoint of theoreticians claiming that different art forms constitute a common generic essence can in the theory and practice of planning the educational process raise doubt in the necessity of the existence of individual fields of art in the curriculum (Abbs, 1994). The philosophical standpoint of theoreticians who emphasise the autonomy of individual artistic fields ensures the autonomy of individual fields also in the curriculum (Elliott, 1995). In the Slovene curricular space the field of music is in the curriculum for primary and grammar school education defined as an independent subject field with established general and operative goals of music education as well as the contents and the standards of knowledge, while in the Curriculum for kindergartens the field of music is merely a constituent part of the field of the arts in which all art varieties (music, fine arts, dancing, audio-visual arts and drama) are defined only in terms of global goals for the whole field, while individual fields of art are defined in terms of activities. The principles defined in the Curriculum for kindergartens are the basis for the planning, realisation and evaluation of the educational process of music education. The way the pre-school teachers understand, interpret and eventually also realise them in practice to a large extent depends on the knowledge of philosophical, psychological and pedagogical-didactic starting points of music education. The present article presents the results of a study which included 159 pre-school teachers from all over Slovenia. The goal of the research, the results of which were obtained through the analysis of the planned curriculum was to establish the place and role music education has in the Curriculum for kindergartens and to what extent the pre-school teachers in the planning of music education take into account the principles of professional justification, horizontal integration and the development-process approach. We were interested in the following research questions: How do pre-school teachers write their lesson plans for the educational process? How and to what extent does the integration of music activities and those in other fields take place? To what extent and how are the general goals defined by specific fields in the Curriculum for Kindergartens and the general and music-subject goals shaped by the preschool teachers represented? To what extent and how are the music contents represented?

The basic research method is the descriptive method of empirical pedagogical research. The data was processed by means of the frequency distribution of variables (f, f %). e.g. fields of activity, art fields, music activities, etc. The preschool teachers designed the lesson plans used in the research across a three-month period. Due to the specific nature of planning in kindergartens (different types of lesson plans: plans as independent didactic units and plans as part of a broader didactic unit or thematic cluster), lesson plans for all areas of activity defined by the Curriculum were collected, namely: for motor activities, language, the arts (music, fine arts, dancing, audio-visual arts and drama) social studies, natural studies, and mathematics. Lesson plans in the field of music education were analyzed particularly in terms of structure, activities, goals, contents, teaching strategies and instructional media.

The findings of the research show that the Curriculum for Kindergartens does not provide enough support for the pre-school teachers in the successful planning of the educational process of music education.The field of music education is in the lesson plans losing its professional autonomy, because pre-school teachers in Slovenia do not entirely follow the principles of the Curriculum. Although the autonomy of individual art fields was in the history of the developments of curricula and even today linked with the philosophical dimension of the development of the curricula for music education or with the structure of the curriculum itself, it is necessary, irrespective of whether the field of music is in the Curriculum defined as an independent field with stated general and operative goals and contents or as a constituent part of art as a field of activity, to ensure the general and specific characteristics of each art field.